


A Beautiful Swordsman

by SydAce



Series: Final Fantasy VII Oneshots/Drabbles/Short Series [15]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Crossdressing, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Gender, Gender Identity, Honeybee Inn, Injury, Other, Pansexual, dance, dislocation, graysexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23959792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SydAce/pseuds/SydAce
Summary: You are injured before performing at the Honeybee Inn. Luckily, Andrea has his eye on a certain swordsman to fill in for you.
Relationships: Andrea Rhodea/Cloud Strife, Cloud Strife/Reader
Series: Final Fantasy VII Oneshots/Drabbles/Short Series [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751617
Comments: 3
Kudos: 56





	A Beautiful Swordsman

When you stood up everything cracked. It started at your ankles, somehow your shins, your knees, and hips. Of course, you couldn’t forget about the discs in your back popping. You rolled your eyes and moved forward, everything still clicking. At least nothing was dislocated this time.

“He’s here again!” you heard one of the honeybees whisper to another woman. You cringed, knowing it was Palmer. He had a habit of wanting to run around with a net to try and catch a honeybee. Luckily, all of the women had some training in self-defense and could easily outrun that creep.

“Oh! [Y/N]!” One of the ladies turned around when she heard you and shot you a soft smile. “Andrea wanted to see you!”

You frowned. “Is everything okay?”

“I think so, he didn’t really say.”

Sighing, you thanked the honeybee and walked off towards the back of the stage where Andrea typically kept rehearsing for different shows. Despite his flawless performances, he continued to push himself to perform bigger and riskier shows.

“Andrea?” you called out and noticed the man was stretching his legs.

He glanced over and smirked. “[Y/N], darling! There you are! How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Is your shoulder doing better?”

“Yeah, I popped it back in. It’s not a big deal,” you shrugged it off. There was some inflammation, but it’d be gone tomorrow. It was a minor dislocation, after all.

Andrea sighed and shook his head. “Well, come now. I want you to come to the colosseum with me. I heard that there are a cute rookie mercenary and a beautiful young lady entering the fight.”

He walked past you and led you down the winding roads of Wall Market. It took you a while to get used to how many alleyways there were and which paths to take. Knowing which streets were dangerous also took a while. Luckily, people were almost everywhere but the alleyways that you had to squeeze into. It was really only those alleyways that were too terribly dangerous.

“Wait, is that?” a man questioned as he gawked at both you and Andrea. “Hey!” he shouted after you. “Why don’t you split your legs for me?”

You glanced at Andrea who ignored the man. Taking his lead, you also brushed off the crude catcaller. The people of Wall Market knew you as the very flexible dancer that could be in almost any position. Of course, if any of the other dancers tried to move the way you did, they’d end up severely injured.

Your hand rubbed into the knotting muscle of your opposing shoulder. You did sometimes end up injured with how hypermobile your joints were. And the more you hyperextended everything, the more everything hurt. But it made you one of the most requested dancers by both men and women that you had a waitlist almost as long as Andrea’s. And being the most requested dancers amounted to having a lot of money.

“So are you more interested in him or her?” you questioned and glanced at Andrea who chuckled lightly.

“It all depends, darling,” he mused. “Perhaps both.” You let out an undignified snort. Though, if anyone could court two people at the same time, Andrea could do it. But it was still rare that he ever took interest in someone, perhaps once every couple of years. Two people at once was a shock.

Once the two of you entered the colosseum, you skipped the lines and went into the reserved box for the trio. A few other bees were already there and pampered Andrea with attention once he took his seat. You stood behind Andrea’s chair and zoned out. These fights weren’t your favorite. Andrea knew that. But he also knew that if he didn’t take you here, you’d most likely further aggravate your injury at the Inn.

\--

“[Y/N]?” Hello?” You blinked when Andrea was leaning down to your eye level with that ever-present smirk. “It’s time to go now, darling.”

“Oh, r-right. Sorry.” He waved off your apology and strolled out of the box. His long legs carried him towards the in with you close behind.

“Yo! Hot stuff!” a man called. A vice grip squeezed on your arm and yanked you back. A pop sounded from your arm. “What the hell?!

You clenched your jaw at the burning sensation in your shoulder and fought a scream in the back of your throat. Andrea swung around at the sound of the man screaming and saw the disfigured appearance of your arm with the man’s hand still holding onto you.

“Hey!” another voice sounded from behind you and the attacker was yanked away. With your arm now free, you let your hand hold onto your dislocated arm. You glanced behind you and saw a blond swordsman push your assailant to the ground. His eyes, that had a strange glow to them, met yours. “You okay?”

“Mhmm,” you nodded, not trusting yourself to actually say anything.

“Thank you,” Andrea stepped in. “You’re Cloud, aren’t you? If you have time, please, stop by Honeybee Inn. We’ll be expecting you.” Andrea turned towards you with a frown. “You are not dancing tonight, my dear. Let’s go get you fixed up.”

You simply hung your head in shame and followed him back. All the while, you worked on shoving your arm back in. It was a bad dislocation that would be inflamed for about a week if you were lucky. Once you were at the entrance, you finally managed to pop it back in.

“Shit!” you let out at the sudden pain. A tear fell from your eyes and your breathing quickened.

Andrea stopped and turned towards you. With a sigh, you pulled you close to hide you from prying eyes. “Just try to relax,” he soothed, knowing that the pain was starting to make you panic. “We’ll get you some ice.” He nodded his head to one of the men in the entourage who ran inside to grab the said ice. After a moment, he led you inside and took you backstage to rest.

“I’m sorry,” you said with a hiss when you rested the back of ice on your shoulder.

“Don’t be, that man had no right to touch you without your consent,” Andrea huffed. “If I had intervened, I could guarantee you he wouldn’t be getting up again.” You laughed lightly at the thought, knowing it was true.

“Thanks, Andrea.”

“Of course, no one disrespects my dancers,” he said with sincerity.

You smiled up at the man. “What are you going to do about the show since I’m out?”

A mischievous spark flashed across his eyes and he snapped his fingers. “I think I have just the idea! I heard the fighters were trying to get into Corneo’s audition. Madam M is taking care of the girl. But I think I can get Cloud in as well.”

You raised an eyebrow. “They are actually willing to go into the audition? Are they crazy?”

“Not crazy. They’re trying to save their friend. Now! Since you’re not dancing, I need you to pick out a dress that would suit your hero, Cloud. I want to be surprised, so try to wow me.” With that, Andrea sauntered out of the dressing room to prepare for the show that evening.

With a sigh, you stood from the stool you were sitting on and moved towards the bag you brought to and from work. In it, was a series of braces and slings you had just in case something happened. With a grunt, you managed to fit your injured arm into the sling and slip the back of ice underneath the strap to keep it in place.

“Now, what dress would suit him?” you pondered and moved towards where all of the costumes were stored. His physique was smaller than Jules, so you couldn’t use any of Jules’s dresses. You’d probably have to go with one of the dresses that Andrea or one of the Honeybee men wore in the shows. But if you wanted Andrea to be surprised, it’d have to be one he hasn’t seen or worn before.

Your fingers swept through the fabric, looking for something that felt soft. Andrea was also always wowed by anything that shimmered under the light. It made the dancers look all that much more special. Your fingers paused on a dress and you pulled it out to examine it.

“Hmm,” you hummed at a blue and black dress. The top was a corset, that could make Cloud look like he had more traditionally feminine features. It had sheer sleeves that would show off his muscles, but Corneo did have a fetish for that. With a nod of approval, you went to grab some hair-extensions, a bow, and a necklace. The dress was long enough to hide his shoes. You weren’t sure if he’s ever walked in heals before and didn’t want this to be his first time.

\--

You stood behind the stage and watched with mild amusement as the swordsman tried to leave. But once the men dragged him back, he sighed with reluctance. Andrea went easy on him and went with a famous dance, so Cloud should know the moves to it if he wasn’t leaving under a rock his whole life. You grinned as he was actually doing a decent job at hitting the moves at the right time. The crowd was going wild for him, too.

Andrea turned around towards Cloud and made a heart with his hands. “Honey, I’m in love!”

You chuckled to yourself and quietly murmured, “You’ve got some competition right here, Andrea.”

Then, it was the fun part. You handed off the dress and sat back as the honeybees did their work to make Cloud look fabulous. The women held out feathered fans to shield the audience of Cloud before twirling away to reveal how beautiful he truly looked.

Andrea looked at Cloud and glanced back towards where you were standing. He gave a nod of approval before twirling Cloud around to try and relax the swordsman’s nerves. Flares burst from the stage and the audience roared with approval. After a long, standing ovation, they all started to fill out of the theater and back towards the streets of the Wall Market.

“You were truly amazing out there, Cloud!” Andrea exclaimed. “You should consider joining our team when all of this is said and done.”

You quickly walked over towards the pair and examined the hairpieces and makeup for any imperfections. “I hope you like the dress!” you started and fixed a stray hair of his. He flinched back but allowed you to fix it. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he sighed and looked away with embarrassment.

You frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” His eyebrows furrowed towards one another in frustration. “I have to dress like this just to get into Corneo’s!”

“You look great!” Andrea reassured. “Besides, a dress is just a dress. Gender should not be assigned to clothes. Breakthrough those barriers, Cloud.”

“He’s right, but you should also dress how you feel comfortable. If you want, I can take you back and you can look and see if anything else would suit you better.”

“No, I just want to get this done and over with,” Cloud grumbled.

Andrea nodded. “I’ll take care of your weapons and clothes. We should also have Aerith’s and Tifa’s.” He looked over towards you. “I’m going to go and make a phone call.”

You nodded, knowing he was going to call Leslie. Looking back at Cloud, you gave him an encouraging smile. “Well, I guess you should get going. Kick Corneo’s ass for me, will ya? And as a thank you for that, and for helping me earlier, feel free to contact me whenever you need something. I’m pretty good at getting things that are in a weird place. Or if you just need someone to talk to.”

Cloud stared at you for a moment in shock. He looked away with what you could have sworn was a blush. “Right.” He turned around and began to awkwardly walk, trying to not step on the dress’s fabric. However, after a few feet, he turned back around to face you. “I think I might just take you up on that.”

With a sly grin, you waved off the beautiful swordsman.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did a decent job with this. My relationship with gender is complex, so I hope I didn’t cause any dysphoria with describing Cloud wearing a dress. Anyways, I headcanon Andrea as being gray-pansexual. So I kinda went with that.
> 
> And if you’re wondering what the hell is wrong with you, you have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Welcome to my life.


End file.
